My Thoughts

As OPA President, I feel that it is my duty to get the views of the membership for such an important decision that will affect the future of our sport. The OPA Executive unanimously agrees and has serious concerns regarding how this program has been designed, implemented and the financial gains to be had by a select few.

The OPA is also in unanimous agreement that anyone from the CPU Executive and All ProvincialPresident’s should not be allowed to make any financial gains by this program as we believe that this is a conflict of interest.

Ontario only has one vote at National level yet we are just under 40% of the CPU membership so the views of this Province are vitally important. Make your voice heard.

The coaching course costs just under $400. The money from this goes to:

1. The person who developed the course2. The CPU3. The course facilitators

Because of the volume of the OPA membership I am unable to get into personal emailing but I would like to know if members are in favour of this program. Please respect all parties and this is a crucial decision. All we require is your for or against.

I would like to stress that only Ontario members give feedback as I have contacted each Provincial President on Sunday and urged them to get the feedback from their membership.

I have twice emailed the CPU Executive requesting this information which will give the OPA membership a much clearer view of the intentions of the CPU how many of our members will be affected.

A lifter has the right to use up the one minute allowed if they wish to.

The one minute allowance was designed when all powerlifting was equipped. This was to allow the wrapping of knees, pulling up suit straps, adjusting the bench shirts etc.

With an averaged of ten lifters in a flight, or approximately ten minutes between attempts coupled with the fact that virtually all lifting is classic, then there is no reason why a lifter cannot be ready to walk onto the platform as soon as the announcer calls “The bar is loaded”.

On average a lifter can normally get the Start or Squat command within 20 seconds unless they must re rack the bar for some reason. Still, we have lifters that choose to use up the full one minute allowed, in fact at the Provincials last week we had a lifter who timed out on his attempt.

A few facts and figures: (In a contest with 60 lifters)

9 Attempts each or 540 attempts in total

If each lifter got to the bar 10 seconds earlier the time saved on the day would be
10 seconds x 540 attempts which would equal 1 ½ hours off the day

Benefits to be had if we all were ready:

The meet director and the army of volunteers could finish 1 ½ hours earlier

The less dead time that we can create, the more interesting it is for the spectator

The lifters do not have to hang around an extra 1 ½ hours for their awards and can be driving home